It was a bright, sunny day, just perfect for a picnic in the woods, or a walk in the park...

/Anything except being stuck in here with all this paperwork.../

His eyes slid back to the window, away from the piles of forms that cluttered his desk.  /I hate this.  I really wish Kaasan wouldn't make me do this kind of stuff.  I mean, designing and inventing - that's interesting.  Checking over forms, organizing stocks and supplies - is dead boring.  Which is why she dumped it on me, I guess.  She hates it just as much as I do./

He sighed, staring out the window, letting his mind wander.

A tickle at his ribs brought him back to reality with a crash as he jumped out of his chair, tripped over it, and landed on the floor in a most undignified manner.

"Baka!"  He scowled furiously at the laughing Son Goten.

"Sorry, Trunks, but I've been trying to get your attention for a couple of minutes already!  You were really out of it!"  He leaned down to whisper in Trunks' ear.  "So who were you daydreaming about, hmmm?  That pretty secretary of yours?"

Trunks' scowl deepened, and he clapped Goten across the ear.  Goten backed away, still chuckling, as Trunks got to his feet.

/If only you knew.../  He heaved a purely mental sigh.

"What are you here for anyway, baka?  Besides trying to scare me half to death," he added sarcastically.

"Oooh,"  Goten smiled wickedly.  "Did I scare you?  Only joking!"  He lifted his hands placatingly as Trunks raised his own threateningly.  "I came to see if you wanted to go see that new play on downtown this afternoon."

"A play?"  Trunks raised his eyebrows in surprise.  /Not Goten's normal idea of entertainment.../

"Yeah."  He shrugged.  "I bought tickets to go with Midori, but..."

Trunks nodded.  Goten had broken up with her just a couple of days before.  "Why didn't you just return the tickets?"

Goten hesitated a moment before replying.  "I don't know.  I... just wanted to see this one."

/He wants to see it?/

"Sure, I'll go with you."  /No way I'm wasting an opportunity like this!/  "What's it about?"

"A kid who spends his life looking for his father, and then coming to terms with him when he finally finds him."

"Oh."  /Goku's due back for a visit soon.  That must have been what caught his attention about that play.  Goku's a good man - but he's a horrible father.  Even my father is better.  At least he's there for me, and not halfway around the world spending all his time training some strange kid just because he wants to fight him when he's older.../

"You don't have to come if you're not interested,"  Goten told him.

/Oh, I'm definitely interested - in you./

"I'll come,"  Trunks assured him

"What about that?"  Goten flicked a finger at the piles of paper that were breeding on the desk.

"It's not going anywhere."

Goten grinned.  "Ah.  Of course not."

The play proved to be very interesting indeed.  /If somewhat depressing.  I'd better keep an eye on Goten, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid./  Not that Goten was the type to suicide, but you never knew...

He watched Goten from the corner of his eye as they made their way back to Trunks' home.  His expression was serious, his manner introspective.  /Looks like he could use a pick-me-up./

"Tadaima!" He called out as he opened the door, ushering Goten through to the kitchen.  /Feeding him should cheer him up./  That was the nice thing about Goten and his father.  Filling their stomachs was a sure-fire way of distracting either one.  /And that little fact comes in handy.../  He smirked, planning a delicious snack to lighten his friend's mood.

He almost walked into Goten who had suddenly stopped in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Nani?"  He was staring into the kitchen, at the figure sitting at the table. A strange boy was helping himself to the former contents of the fridge, which were now spread out before him on the table.  He looked very much like a young version of Vegeta, about sixteen or seventeen years old.

"Who the hell are you?"  Trunks demanded of the boy.  /He looks like Tousan!  Just like Tousan... with blue eyes...?!/

The boy calmly swallowed his mouthful of chicken - /And why is he eating our food?!/ - before looking up to answer him.

"Jita."

He resumed his consumption of the chicken.

Trunks looked at Goten.  Goten shrugged.

"Yo, Jita, is there enough there for me?"  Goten asked plaintively.

"Baka!"  Trunks snapped at his erstwhile friend, as he slipped into the seat next to the stranger, and dug into the food piled up on the table himself.

Goten grinned apologetically.  "Sorry, but I'm hungry!"

Trunks rolled his eyes in exasperation.  Jita grinned back at Goten, and piled some food on a plate for him, passing it to him wordlessly.

"You Saiyajin?"  Goten queried around several mouthfuls of chicken.

"Half Saiyajin, half human," Jita answered, barely pausing himself between bites.

"So who are your parents?"  Trunks glared at the boy, folding his arms across his chest.

Jita chuckled.  "I would have thought that would be obvious.  Bulma and Vegeta."

"Nani?"

"That's impossible!"  Trunks gripped Jita's shirt, hauling him out of the chair to stand upright.  "I've only got one sister! I don't have any brothers!"

"Of course not!"  Jita snorted.  "Neither do I."

"Then what do you mean your parents are Bulma and Vegeta?!"

"They are!  They're just not your parents."

"Hey, yo!  Time out, here!" Goten interrupted.  "You lost me back there."  He turned to Jita.  "So are you going to explain, or what?"

"'Or what' sounds interesting,"  Jita smirked.  Trunks raised his fist.  "Okay, okay!  I'll talk!"  He laughed at Trunks' threatening expression, and took a deep breath.  "I'm from another dimension."

"Another dimension?"

"Yep!"  He squirmed out of Trunk's clutches and back to the remains of his meal.

"Is that all you're going to say?"  Trunks demanded incredulously.

"What else do you want me to say?"  Jita wondered, blinking bright blue eyes guilelessly at him.

"Maybe something along the lines of why you're here," prompted Goten with a smile.

"Oh, I'm just visiting."

"'Just visiting'?"  Trunks repeated flatly.  /I swear this brat is going to drive me up the wall./

"That's right," Jita smiled sweetly at him before mopping up the last bits of his dinner.

/A sweet smile on Tousan's face - now that is scary!/

"No other reason?  No megalomaniac trying to take over your world?  No disaster that you need our help to clear up?"

"Nope.  Just sightseeing."

/He's crazy./

"Have you been to many different worlds?"  Goten asked, interested.

"Don't encourage him!"  Trunks fixed a fearsome glare on the strange boy.  "We don't know whether he's telling the truth or not."

Jita blinked, and pouted.

"Oh come on, he looks exactly like your father!"

"Yaay!  Goten believes me!" he cried, throwing his arms around the neck of a very surprised Goten.

/The brat is definitely going to die!/

"What the hell is going on in here?" demanded Vegeta as he entered the kitchen.  He took one look at Jita glomping  Goten, who was now struggling to breathe, and raised one eyebrow.  "Who the hell are you?"

Jita laughed.  "You can definitely tell the family resemblance. He just asked me the same thing."  He loosened his grip on Goten's neck long enough to gesture towards Trunks.  Goten took the opportunity to grab a few lungfuls of air.  Vegeta didn't move, still scowling at the boy who looked so much like himself.

"My name's Jita, I'm your son from an alternate dimension, and I'm here to visit.  Anything else you want to know?"  Jita grinned at his 'father'.  Vegeta scowled back.

"Yes - why the hell are you hugging Goten?"

"Ooops!  Sorry, got a little carried away there," he apologized to Goten, who had now recovered from his near-strangulation.

"That's okay, I guess," Goten replied, a little bewildered.

/If he does it again I'm going to strangle him!/

 "You're so much like my own Goten," Jita sighed dreamily, smiling away at empty air.  "He's so perfect!"

Goten's jaw dropped.  "You mean - "

/Dead!  That kid is dead!/

"He's the love of my life," Jita continued obliviously, swooning.  "As soon as I get out of school, we're going to get married, and live together forever and ever..."

"Guys can't marry each other," Trunks interrupted stonily.

"Then we'll just live together."  Jita was unfazed, completely happy in his little dreamworld.

Vegeta turned to Trunks, his face impassive.  "He's your problem," he told him, and walked out of the room.

/Oh, thanks a lot, Tousan!/  He glanced between the love-struck Jita and the flabbergasted Goten.  /I'm really going to kill that brat!/

"You can stay in the spare bedroom," Trunks informed him icily.  He clenched his fists as Jita's gaze flicked over to Goten.  "Alone, damnit!"

Jita simply shrugged, still smiling, and winked at Goten on his way out the door.  "I know the way!"

Goten blinked at Trunks dazedly.  "He's in love with me?"

"With another version of you."  /So why the hell is he here stealing you from me?/  Trunks sighed, forlornly.  /Not that I've ever really had you, literally or figuratively.../  He dragged his mind out of the gutter by its leash.  /How pathetic am I?  Very./

Goten's expression had turned contemplative.  "I wonder what it would be like..."

"Nani?"

Goten blushed.  "Never mind."  He stood up, and walked towards the door.  "I'll just see how Jita's settling in."

He left Trunks gaping after him.  /Oh great.  Now he decides he's going to go after a guy - and he's going to go after him! Him and not me!/  He sank into a chair, and rested his forehead on the table.  /I hate my life./

"You're what?"  Bulma stared at the boy standing before her.  She, Chichi and Videl had just come back from a shopping spree with Bra and Pan.  They had found Goten in the lounge room cracking jokes with Jita, while Trunks glowered in the corner.

"I'm your son!"  Jita repeated.  "Well, kind of, anyway."  Goten quickly gave the women a summary of what Jita had told them.

/Not that that's much.  He's hiding something... But what?/

Jita and Goten had spent quite a while in the spare room together.  /And I don't want to know what they were doing in there./  Whatever the reason, they had left the room fast friends.  /They get on like a house on fire.  Only it's my house of dreams that they're burning down.../

He scowled, unhappily noting the firm grip Jita had on Goten's hand.

/Why can't that be me holding Goten's hand?  I saw him first!  And he already has his own Goten!/

He turned his attention back to the interrogation his mother was giving his 'brother'.

"So, do you have any girlfriends?"

Trunks groaned inwardly.  /She would have to ask that!/

Jita shook his head.  "Boyfriend," he informed her.  She blinked.  "Goten," he elaborated.  Chichi fainted.  Jita blinked.  "Oops."

They managed to revive Chichi, but she wasn't particularly comfortable around the new arrival - so much so that she left early, encouraging Goten to join her soon.

Goten simply waved at her before resuming his chat with Jita.

/Figures./

It had been three days since he had discovered Jita in the kitchen.  Three days he had spent trying to ignore the delighted laughter and incessant chatter of their uninvited guest - and Goten.

/I don't believe it!  I spend years trying to get Goten's attention, and here that brat just walks into his life - and his heart./  Trunks' hands tightened on the bundle of paper he held, scrunching it up unconsciously.  He stared with unseeing eyes at the letters and numbers in front of him.  /That has to be the worst part - Goten actually likes him!  I haven't seen him so happy in ages.../  He sighed.  As long as Goten was happy...

/But what happens when he goes back to his own world?  To his own Goten?  What happens to my Goten then?/  He dropped the papers in a untidy pile, and went to stand by the window.  /Maybe he'll see that I've been waiting for him all this time.../  He snorted.  /Or maybe he'll just see me as a substitute for Jita.  After all, what do I have that Jita doesn't?  An unpleasant personality.  What a recommendation that is./

"Hey, Trunks!"

Trunks suppressed his instinct to murder the ever-smiling Jita, limiting his reaction only by inhuman effort, to a simple scowl.

"Don't you ever knock?"

"Just thought I'd ask if you wanted to go for a walk, or something."  Jita flashed him a brilliant smile.  "It's a beautiful day out there, after all - and you've barely been out to enjoy yourself once since I've been here!  If I didn't know better I would say that you've been avoiding me!"

/Insolent brat.  What if I have?/

"I'm busy," he gestured to the paperwork.

"It'll still be there when you get back!  Honestly!  You're lucky you have a good friend like Goten to make sure you take a break - otherwise I'm sure you'd work yourself to death!"

Trunks winced a little at the mention of Goten, and turned his head, hoping that Jita wouldn't notice.  He did.

"So, is that why you're so upset with me?" He shook his head at Trunks.  "You really can be an idiot at times, did you know that?"

Trunks bristled.  "Shut up!"

"You mean like you have?  You're not going to solve anything if you don't talk it over with him."  He laughed.  "I can't believe you haven't told him.  You've been after him for how long, now?"

"None of your business, brat!"  Trunks swatted at him, thoroughly annoyed.

"Oh, but it is!"

"How so?"

"You'll see!"  Jita informed him, with a mysterious smile.

Trunks grabbed him by the shirt once more.  "What aren't you telling me?!"

"Uh uh,"  Jita chastised.  "It's not what I'm not telling you, it's what you're not telling Goten!"

Trunks dropped him in disgust, then turned back to the window, sighing.  "What's the point?  I'm just a friend to him - and he'll never see me as anything more.  He wouldn't have even seen you that way if you hadn't - "

"Glomped him?"  Jita supplied helpfully.  "You should thank me then.  At least I got him thinking about it!"

"Yeah," Trunks muttered bitterly.  "With you."

"Oh, wake up, Trunks."  Jita had finally stopped smiling, his expression now a combination of frustration and concern.  "You should have just jumped him years ago."

"Like you did, you mean?"

Jita scowled at him, for the first time actually looking like a blue-eyed Vegeta.  "What part of this don't you understand?  I am not after your Goten.  I miss my Goten, so I just wanted to talk with him.  That's all."

"If you miss your Goten so much, then why are you here instead of there with him?"  Trunks snapped, angrily.

Jita was quiet a moment before answering.

"Because he's dead."

/What!?/  "But you said..."  Trunks trailed off weakly.

"Oh, he won't be dead for too much longer,"  Jita assured him with a bright smile.  But under the smile, Trunks could now see the lines of pain and worry that touched the young man's face.  "The others have gone to Namek, to resurrect him with the Dragonballs there...  I just have to wait a bit..."  This last was barely audible.  Trunks kicked himself mentally, and considered a world without Goten in it.  It didn't make for pleasant thinking.

"I'm sorry," he apologized gently.  "I didn't know."

Jita blinked at him, then gave a sad little chuckle.  "Of course not.  How could you..."  He turned away from Trunks to gaze out the window at the bright day outside.

"What happened?"

Silence prevailed for a few minutes, then Jita tilted his head to face him.

"You were right.  We were attacked by a megalomaniac idiot who wanted to take over the world."  He smiled briefly.  "We were able to send them packing, but what we didn't realize was that their weapons were all poison-coated.  By the time we found out - it was too late for Goten."

"Did you make them pay?"

Jita smiled at him once more, but this time it was an unpleasant, twisted thing indeed.  "Not yet," he replied.  "But I will, I most assuredly will."

Slowly, Trunks held out his arms to him.  Jita wavered a moment before collapsing into them, sobbing helplessly into his shoulder.

/I'm sorry, Jita.  I should have been more understanding, I should have seen that you were suffering.  I always was a selfish bastard, never seeing anyone's needs but my own.  Well, I've learned my lesson - I won't ignore you any more.  Or Goten.  I always moaned about how much I needed him - but at least I knew what was missing from my life.  Maybe Goten just never realized...  and in some ways that's worse than knowing but not receiving what you so desperately need.../

He absently dropped a kiss on Jita's brow.  /I won't hurt you anymore./

/I'm going to kill him.  I swear I'm going to kill him./  Trunks looked over to where 'he' was - with Goten.  /He may have said that he wasn't going to go after my Goten, but it sure looks as though he is!/

Jita was curled up on the lounge.  Technically.  The fact that Goten was underneath him was probably purely coincidental.  /Yeah, right.  And Tousan's the toothfairy./  He grimaced.  It was all well and good to decide that he would tell Goten how he felt about him, but there were a whole series of difficulties when it came to actually doing it.

/And one of them is named Jita./  Trunks frowned in annoyance.  /He was the one who wanted me to tell him in the first place... So why is he being such a pain now?/

On the lounge, Jita shifted his weight, snuggling closer in to Goten.  Goten wrapped his arms around him in response, a small smile on his face as he stroked Jita's hair.

Trunks felt his heart shattering into a thousand tiny pieces.

/He'll never look at me that way.../

He turned away, leaving the happy couple behind him as he slowly walked outside, taking to the air as soon as he was out of the doorway.  /At least up here I can be free.../  It was cold comfort, but what else did he have?  /I should be used to it by now.  I should just face the fact that Goten will never love me.  So why can't I?/

He closed his eyes, lifting himself up higher with his ki until the air was thin enough to leave him gasping for breath.  Only then did he open his eyes, looking down at the world below him with its beautiful hues of green, blue and brown.  He drank in the sight for a long moment, before rolling onto his back to stare up at the thin pinpoints of light above him.

/They seem so close, and yet they're so far.../ They twinkled down at him, as though laughing at their own private joke.  /Laughing at me because they're beyond my reach, as he is.../  At least most of them were winking.  Most of them were beyond his reach.  There was one that seemed to be moving closer to him, its light unwavering.  /Probably a spaceship./  Trunks shrugged, and returned to his stargazing.

/Wait a minute - a spaceship?!!/  He turned back to the suspicious source of light, staring at it with alert eyes.  /It is a spaceship - but whose ship, I wonder...?/

He couldn't really go much further up without having to hold his breath, so he waited for it to descend to his level where he tailed it, discretely.

He opened bleary eyes to see a blurry figure with lavender hair sitting at his bedside.

"Kaasan?" he asked hoarsely, trying to get his eyes to focus.

"Not quite," a female voice replied dryly.  He managed to focus on her face at last, similar to his mother's but younger, with dark golden eyes.  "You were poisoned," she informed him.  "I've given you the antidote, but you'll feel like crap for the next couple of hours.  You’ll probably find it easier sleeping it off."

"Great," he sighed, closing his eyes as the room began to spin before them.  The next time he opened them his mind wasn’t nearly so fuzzy.  The room he was in was not his own, but had a stark, utilitarian feel to it, as though it were one of the standard rooms of a simple capsule house.  Upon reviewing his surroundings a second time, Trunks decided it probably was.

There was no one there to greet him this time, so he devoted his energy to recalling just how the hell he had ended up here in the first place.  Wherever ‘here’ was.

/There was a spaceship…  I was following it… and someone was following me/ he concluded glumly as he recalled a brief glimpse of a sword blade streaking towards him.  He frowned, running his hands over his body.  /I don’t feel wounded anywhere; but I’m sure I was cut…/  A fragment of memory prodded at his mind.  Something about poison?

"So, you’re awake already.  The benefits of being half-Saiyajin, I suppose."  The girl was back, standing in the doorway to the room.  Trunks frowned as he sat up, looking the girl over.

/She has Kaasan’s hair colour, but that’s about it…/

"I'm Chima," she informed him.  "You've probably already met my brother, Jita."

/Great.  Another one.  At least she won't be after Goten, then - I hope!/

"If you're feeling better, then get up," she ordered brusquely.  "I could use the help, and I don't have time to waste."  With that said, she spun on her heel and strode out of the room, leaving Trunks blinking in her wake.

/Now she's more like Tousan!  Should have named her after him./  With nothing better to do, he pushed himself off the bed and followed Chima, who led him down a short corridor into a type of control centre.  There were several large monitors, most of which were showing various angles of the spaceship Trunks had seen.  The others showed several humanoid forms, one of which was very familiar to Trunks.

"He hit me with that sword!"

"He tried to kill you," Chima corrected as she settled down behind one of the consoles.  "He would have succeeded if I hadn't been tracking them so closely.  I picked you up after they let you fall.  As far as they’re concerned, you're history."

"Uh, thanks," Trunks muttered as he examined the aliens on the screen before him.  "Are they the ones who came to your world?  The ones Jita said killed Goten?"

Chima started, and looked up from the console to meet his gaze.  "Yes," she replied, a shimmer in her golden eyes.  "Yes, they are."

"Then you're here to take them out."

She nodded and turned back to the monitor.  "I just have to find a weakness."

"You came here without knowing how to beat them?" Trunks queried in surprise.  "Who else came, besides Jita?"

She flushed, her mouth tightening a little.  "Jita wasn't supposed to come."

"And neither were you," he guessed.

She glared at him.  "We couldn't just let them do to you what they did to – " she broke off, and turned away.

"Thanks for caring, Chima."  She looked up at him, wide-eyed.  "But I still think coming here unprepared was a stupid thing to do."

"I didn't come unprepared!" she snapped angrily.  "I have the antidote for their poison, and all the other data we collected about them!"  She gestured towards the computer.  "They have to have a weakness somewhere!”

/Hmm, stubborn as Kaasan, too./

"You have another chair?"

She smiled, her face softening ever so slightly, as a touch of joy brightened her eyes.

Trunks sighed and rubbed his eyes as yet another schematic popped up on his screen.  /We've been at this for hours already.  With what we know so far – and the equipment Chima has in her capsule kit - we can throw them out of this dimension, or even out of this time; but if we do that, they'll just try to take over someone else's planet…/  His eyes flickered across to one of the screens monitoring the unwelcome arrivals.

The intruders had not yet made any hostile moves, but Chima had assured him that they were just establishing themselves in their new base.

"Wouldn't it be better to attack them before they're ready for it?" he'd wanted to know.  Chima had simply shrugged.

"It won't make a difference if we're just going to use the dimensional transporter, and I don't know any other way at the moment.  Do you?"

He'd been unable to do more than shake his head in reply, and go on with the data analysis.

/This sucks./

A slight flicker in the corner of one of the monitors caught his attention.  He stared at it for a long moment.

"Chima?"

"Nani?"

"Why is Jita here?"

She gazed flatly at him.  "The same reason I am."

"But would he use the same method?"

"No, he'd probably just - "  She spun around, her eyes focusing on the same monitor he was string at - the one showing Jita sneaking up on the base.  "That idiot!"

/Just like Tousan – Jita's out for vengeance, and he considers it very personal./

"I think we just ran out of time."

Chima didn't bother answering, but simply headed for the spaceship at top speed, with Trunks following after.

/The brat may have been driving me up the wall, but I'm not going to let him get himself killed over it!  What a welcome back that wold be for his Goten…/  Trunks shuddered as he pictured a heartbroken Goten grieving for his lost love.  /For that matter, my Goten wouldn't exactly be happy about it either…/

He resigned himself to the necessity of rescuing Jita from his attempt at vengeance.  /It's not like he's actually going to succeed, just barging in like that without a plan or anything./  he thought, blithely ignoring the fact that that was exactly what he himself and Chima were doing.

Fortunately, they arrived before Jita managed to get himself hurt or even killed.  They landed several hundred metres away, closing the remaining distance to the preoccupied youth on foot.  Trunks only just managed to slap a hand over Jita's mouth before he could emit a startled yelp.

"What are you doing here?!" the boy hissed in a peculiar combination of fright and relief as soon as Trunks'  muffling hand was removed.

"Shouldn't I be the one to ask you that, brat?" Chima snapped in reply, her golden eyes sparking in fury.  "What do you think our fathers will think when they find out you've - "

"It's not like you're supposed to be here either - "

"Children!!!"

Trunks almost looked around to see where the hell his mother had come from before he realized that it had been his own voice chastising the feuding siblings.  /I'm starting to sound like my mother?!  I need help - badly./

"If the two of you really want to get yourselves killed, go right ahead," he continued brusquely while blue and gold eyes blinked at him in surprise.  "But don't expect to drag me into it, too!  You say that they're - " he gestured in the direction of the base - "here to make trouble?  And that you're both here to help?  Then shut up and don't make it any worse!!!"

"Oi, Trunks, don't you think that that's being a little harsh on them?"

Trunks bit his tongue in his attempt to keep from screaming as a hand grasped his shoulder.  The gaze he directed towards Goten was not a happy one.  Goten blinked.

"Um, I mean they're just kids..."

"I am not - "

"SSSSSHHH!!!"

/I hate kids./

The four of them spent a quiet moment together, bonding in the air of shared antagonism.  Unfortunately, Trunks and Chima's arrival had not been as inconspicuous as Jita's had been - and even less so than Goten's.  The consequences of this were swifter in action than any of the half-Saiyajin, although slower when it came to reacting. The main result of this was that Chima was on the receiving end of a rather severe haircut as the four of them fumbled to get each other out of the way of the assortment of edged weaponry wielded at them.

"Don't let them cut you!" Trunks shouted to Goten in warning, fear clenching at his heart as he realized that his friend didn't know about the poison...

"You either!"  Chima snapped as she blocked a strike that would have grazed Trunks' thigh.

"You're one to talk," Jita laughed as he danced around a pair of long knives held by one of the shorter invaders, somehow finding the time to gesture towards the lopsided haircut his sister now bore.  Chima growled, and deliberately tracked down the assailant who had dared to touch her hair.  He didn't last more than a couple of blows, and those only because she didn't know whether or not he'd bothered to poison the studs on his armor.  The rest of the attackers soon succumbed to the same fate, several fleeing while the remainder lay collapsed at the foursome's feet.

"Well, that wasn't a bad little workout," Goten commented, stretching his arms out and flexing his muscles, a grin on his face.

"Baka!  You could have been killed!  That stuff is all poison-coated!" /One cut, and I'd be acting just like Jita...  What a charming thought./

"Hey, we don't know if those weapons could even scratch us!"

"THEY CAN!!!"  The three-fold reply was emphatic enough to silence any further objections.

"So what do we do now?"  Chima queried.  "It's not like they don't know we're coming now..."

"And whose fault is that?"

"You - "

"Quiet!"  Trunks glared at them both.  /I'm so glad I'm gay - it's the perfect excuse for never having kids./  "I guess we should just use the transporter and be done with them."

"Wait a minute," Goten held up one hand.  "You mean foist them off onto someone else?  That's not - "

Trunks' eyes caught a glint of reflected light from some distance behind Goten.  /That looks like - /  He moved instantly, just as the sniper fired a projectile towards Goten's unprotected back.   /No!/

It didn't hit Goten.  Trunks smiled in relief, ignoring the pain spreading through his chest as he stumbled backwards into Goten's arms.  His last sight was of Goten's concerned face.

/The perfect way to die./

He wasn't dead.  He felt too bad to be dead.  /Someone stuffed up.  Probably me.  Again./

"He's awake!"

"Kaasan?"  /Haven't we been through this already?/

"Hush!"  Bulma leaned over him, stroking his forehead as though he were a child.  "You've been through a lot, the past few days."

"He'll be fine in a few days," Chima informed her from beside the door, sporting a new - short - hairstyle.  Her tone of feigned boredom was matched by that of Vegeta's, from outside the room.

"Of course he'll be fine.  He has my blood."

Bulma rolled her eyes, smiling exasperatedly as her husband stalked off while she comforted her son on his sickbed, fussing over him.  He escaped her attentions only when Chima asked politely for a few minutes alone with him.  She didn't get them, but not because of Bulma.

"Wow, you really do love him, just diving over like that and taking that dart like that - I didn't even see it! - oh, and boy did he get pissed when you passed out - he just blasted that guy! - and then the others, one by one, and there were dozens of them - hundreds even! - and they all ran - "

Chima managed to shut her brother up by virtue of gagging him with part of Trunks' bed linen.  She wasn't able to stop him from bouncing all over the bed, however, his blue eyes bright with joy.

"Is he alright?" Trunks finally managed to ask.

"He's fine," Chima answered briefly.  "He took out most of the would-be world dominators right after you took that dart for him, and Jita and I cleaned up the rest.  He should be here soon."

"By which time we should probably be on our way," Jita added, having managed to extract the makeshift gag from his mouth.  "We've already said our goodbyes to everyone else, we were just waiting for you to wake up before we left.  Took you long enough, too - you've been out for two days!"

"Two days?"  /Wasn't that antidote any good?/  Chima scowled.

"The bastards used a different poison on that dart to the one we'd previously encountered.  We had to work up a new antidote for you.  You almost died again."

Trunks sighed.  /Maybe that would have been better.../  "Thanks."

"You're welcome.  Try not to do it again while I'm not here."  With those words, Chima spun on her heel and strode out of the room.

/That was 'goodbye'?  She really does take after Tousan!/

Jita bounced off the bed.  "Well, I guess I'd better be going, too."

"Wait just one minute!"  Sitting up, Trunks snagged the boy by one wrist before he ventured further.  "Tell me something.  When we met up with you, Chima said something about your fathers."

Jita blinked.  "Um, yeah.  So?"

"Fathers.  Plural."

"Oh."  Jita blinked again, a mischievous smile twitching onto his face.  "Well, just think of it this way: you get to see what a truly fantastic son you've raised before he's even born!"

Trunks stared at him.  /Oh gods.../

"But you'd really better get things patched up with Touchan soon, or we might not be born at all!  Anyway, gotta go!  Bye!"  Jita zipped out of the room, leaving a dumbfounded Trunks in his wake.

/I've created a monster./

He collapsed back onto the sheets, not wanting to think about it, but unable to avoid doing so - albeit in a limited manner.

/It's not possible.  I hate brats.  I hate them.  It's not possible./

Goten's arrival was a most welcome break in his monotonous litany, however Goten himself presented Trunks with yet another problem.

/He's the father of children I haven't had yet - children whom I don't know how we could possibly produce  - and I'm not even in a relationship with him!  At least, not the kind that matters in this case.../

Ignorant of his best friend's dilemma, Goten smiled affably as always, placing the food-laden tray he was carrying down on the bedside table.

"Brought you a snack."

"I'm not hungry."

"They were good kids, don't you think?" Goten mumbled as he munched his way through half of Trunks' snack, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"They were brats."

Goten laughed.  "You liked them.  I know you."  He sighed, turning his gaze away. "I wish I could have children like that someday.

Trunks shrugged and rolled over to hide his nauseated expression.  "I'm sure you'll make a great father."  /Just not of Jita and Chima.  It just isn't possible./

"I'll never be a father."

"Why not?"

"Because I'd need to have a girlfriend at the very least."

/I'm going to be sick./

"Only I'd rather have something else."

Trunks became acutely aware of the hand Goten lazily trailed through his hair and down the back of his neck.  "Goten," he said in a strictly controlled voice, "I need to go to the bathroom."

"Want some help?"

/Argh!/  Trunks fled as swiftly as his still-recovering body would allow.  In that bastion of safety the bathroom had become, he managed to relieve himself of several problems - the first being the natural consequences of being unconscious for two days, the second just as natural as long as you happened to be in love with the guy who was waiting for you in the next room.

"Want a hand?" Goten called through the closed door after Trunks had been in there for several minutes.

"No!"  /Oh, yes!  I hope he's not listening at the door.../

A few minutes later, a much calmer Trunks opened the bathroom door - only to have Goten fall on top of him due to the sudden removal of his support, dragging them both to the floor.

"Um, gomen," Goten laughed a little sheepishly from his position on top of Trunks.

Trunks groaned, trying desperately to maintain the little bit of equilibrium he had managed to attain - and losing drastically as his body tingled at every place Goten's own touched on his.

"Gomen," Goten repeated softly, his expression becoming serious as he gazed directly into Trunks' eyes, and lowered his head so that their lips met.

/He's kissing me!  He's touching me - there!/  Trunks ceased to think, living only for that kiss, those touches, and making absolutely no objection when Goten scooped him off the floor and laid him gently back in the bed.  He objected even less when Goten stayed beside him, his lips continuing their worship, his roaming hands tugging them both out of their clothes.

Naked and entwined, this was a moment Trunks had daydreamed of countless times, and now at long last it was real...  Wasn't it?

"Ite!"  Goten yelped as Trunks pinched his buttocks.

"Sorry," Trunks smirked.  "Just checking that this wasn't a dream."

"Check some other way!"

The smirk grew a little wider.  "How's this?" he asked, his fingers finding a more sensitive spot to tease.  His only verbal reply was a groan.  The non-verbal response, while taking a little longer to obtain, was somewhat more substantial.  Trunks was still smirking as Goten collapsed onto his chest.

"What's the matter?  Too tired to play anymore?"

Goten waved one hand limply, without lifting his head from Trunks' chest.  "Gimme a minute, willya?"

Trunks snorted, tangling his fingers in his lover's hair.  /That wasn't quite how I'd dreamt it would go, but it's definitely better than nothing.  And I'm not finished with him yet!/

"You know, it's a pity Jita had to leave so soon."

"What do you mean?" Trunks growled suspiciously.

"It could have been interesting..."

Trunks calmly picked up a pillow and began to smother Goten with it, one-handed.  His other hand was otherwise occupied.

"Ahh!  I give! I give!" came the squealed reply after just a few tickles, and Trunks let up on his attack, permitting Goten to sit up.

"Threesomes already?  Just whatever happened to the innocent Goten I grew up with?"

"He got corrupted by his best friend."

/I just wish it'd happened sooner!/

"But you're right, Trunks," Goten smiled.  "Two is company."

"And three's a crowd," Trunks completed.  /And incest in this case, but then he doesn't know about that.../

Nor had Jita or his sister yet been born - /Just how did their fathers manage that anyway?!/ - but if three was company, then four was family.  And Goten wanted a family.

"For the moment, anyway," Trunks added as he speculated on the possibility, his mind wandering.  Until Goten's hands brought him back to the present.  "Hentai!"

Laughter was the only reply.